Journalists assaulted by police amid coronavirus lockdown in India

Authorities in India must stop assaulting journalists and allow them to do their work freely and without restrictions, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police in Hyderabad and Delhi assaulted at least four journalists yesterday, as India began a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, according to news reports and journalists who spoke to CPJ. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a statement yesterday, reiterating that journalists are exempt from the lockdown and are free to do their work without any restriction. “Journalists are exempted from the ongoing lockdown in India because…Read more

Pakistan broadcast regulator cuts distribution of Geo News after CEO’s arrest

Pakistan authorities should immediately lift restrictions placed on Geo News and allow it to broadcast freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, the country’s broadcast regulator, contacted cable distributers throughout the country today and ordered them to stop transmitting Geo TV, the Urdu TV news channel owned by Jang Media Group, or else switch its broadcasts to a higher channel that is harder for viewers to find, according to news reports and Azhar Abbas, managing director of the broadcaster, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. The regulator did…Read more

Journalist missing in Bangladesh following defamation suit

Bangladesh authorities should spare no effort to locate missing journalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol, and should not allow a criminal defamation case to proceed against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Yesterday, the journalist’s family filed a report with the Chawkbazar Police Station in Dhaka, the capital, stating that Kajol, a photographer and editor of the biweekly Pakkhakal magazine, had not been since March 10, according to news reports. Kajol disappeared one day after he and 31 others were named in a criminal defamation complaint filed by Saifuzzaman Shikhor, a member of parliament from the ruling…Read more

Bomb explodes at offices of Cyprus Times

Authorities in Cyprus must quickly and thoroughly investigate the bomb attack at the offices of the Cyprus Times’ parent company, determine whether it was tied to the outlet’s journalism, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said. At about 2:10 a.m. on March 4, a pipe bomb exploded outside the office of MC Digital Media Group, a building which houses the offices of the Cyprus Times news website as well as other media outlets owned by the group, in the southern Cypriot city of Limassol, according to news reports. No one was…Read more

Commonwealth Day 2020

Message from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth  Read the Commonwealth Day Message by Her Majesty The Queen Commonwealth Day 2020 was celebrated on 09 March with events across 5 continents including flag parades, church services, poetry mornings, dance performances and much more. This year’s event was centred around the theme 'Delivering a Common Future', highlighting how the 54 member countries in the Commonwealth family are ‘innovating, connecting and transforming’ to help achieve some of its biggest goals like protecting natural resources and boosting trade. Flag-raising ceremonies Many people mark Commonwealth Day with a flag raising ceremony,…Read more

Indian reporter M. Karthi attacked, threatened in Tamil Nadu

Indian authorities must swiftly and transparently investigate an attack on journalist M. Karthi and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. At about 8:30 p.m. on March 3, an unidentified man stopped Karthi, a reporter at the Tamil-language weekly Kumudam, in Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu state, and said, “Will you publish news, you bastard? I will kill you today,” and then hit Karthi in his head and face with an iron rod, according to news reports, Karthi’s official complaint to police, which CPJ reviewed, and local reporter K. Rajendran, who spoke to…Read more

Pakistan government suspends advertising in 2 independent media groups

  • Posted on March 11, 2020
  • /Under Coercion
Pakistani authorities should grant government advertising to outlets without regard for their editorial stances, and should lift the suspension of advertising in the Dawn and Jang media groups, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Since January, the country’s federal government and the provincial governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab have suspended the normal practice of placing advertisements with the two independent media groups, according a report by Dawn and a statement from the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, a private organization representing publishers. The Dawn Media Group publishes Dawn, Pakistan’s most prominent English-language newspaper, and owns the Urdu-language Dawn News TV Channel. Jang…Read more

Tanzanian reporter finally freed after seven months

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomes Tanzanian journalist Erick Kabendera’s release today after nearly seven months in prison but regrets that he had to plead guilty to charges of money-laundering and tax evasion to be freed. The high price exacted by the authorities is indicative of the steady decline in press freedom in Tanzania, RSF said. A stringer for such renowned media outlets as The Guardian and The East African, Kabendera was arrested on 29 July 2019 on suspicion of having obtained his Tanzanian citizenship fraudulently. Thereafter, the charges against him kept on being changed in a series of…Read more

Cameroonian journalist Martinez Zogo jailed since January on defamation charges

Authorities in Cameroon should immediately release journalist Martinez Zogo, drop all charges against him, and reform the country’s penal code to decriminalize defamation, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On January 17, judicial police officers in Yaoundé, the capital, arrested Zogo at the offices of Radio Amplitude FM, a privately owned broadcaster where he works as editor-in-chief, Zogo’s lawyer, Joseph Kenmoe, told CPJ in a phone interview. Authorities charged him with criminal defamation following a complaint filed by Sylvie Biye Essono, the ex-wife of a government official, which alleged that Zogo had…Read more

Pakistani journalist murdered after warning of threats against him

Pakistan authorities should take swift action to launch a thorough and credible investigation into the murder of journalist Aziz Memon, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Memon, who worked for the privately-owned Sindhi TV channel KTN News and the Sindhi-language Daily Kawish newspaper, was found strangled to death in an irrigation ditch yesterday near the town of Mehrabpur in the Naushahro Feroze District of Sindh province, according to newsreports. “The tragic murder of Aziz Memon deserves swift justice, which is something Pakistani authorities have repeatedly failed to deliver for journalists,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler.…Read more